Mats have many residential, commercial and industrial uses. Some of the most demanding uses involve factory applications. Mats are commonly placed around industrial machines. There they are subject to heavy traffic, as well as liquid, solid and chemical contamination.
Most industrial mats are fabricated from rubber. The rubber must be hard for durability. On the other hand, it should be resilient and compressive for the comfort and health of the user. These two properties are significantly incompatible with each other. A hard mat is not resilient and compressive. A soft mat, while resilient and compressive, is not durable.
Most mats are supported by legs. Mats are often placed upon metal gratings surrounding a machine or a work area. The gratings are necessary to receive and contain liquid and solid waste and contaminants. The use of mats with legs on top of metal gratings is problematic because the legs tend to sink into and embed within the gratings.
Many mats are fabricated to have surface drain holes to promote liquid and solid drainage. The holes are typically contained within the horizontal top surface of the mat. The problem with such a drain hole configuration is that the holes easily clog. They readily catch and retain foreign objects. A hard object trapped in an upright position within a drain hole often presents a serious safety hazard. The problem could be alleviated by positioning drain holes within a vertical wall on the top mat surface. Unfortunately, vertical wall drain holes are difficult to cost effectively mold into rubber.
Another problem with mats is that they are often subject to liquid, oily or slippery environments. Such environments constitute serious safety hazards because of the unsafe footing to which users are subjected. This problem can be alleviated by bonding grit to the top surface of a mat. However, it is often not cost-effective to cover a mat with grit. Further, the compressive forces to which a mat is subjected by users causes flexure of the mat which tends to break the bond holding the grit to the mat. As a result, it is difficult to keep sufficient grit bonded to a mat during the life expectancy of the mat.
The manufacturing cost of a grit covered mat could be reduced by only applying grit to selective areas of the mat. This becomes problematic because the adhesives typically used to bond grit to a mat are liquid or semiliquid. The adhesives tend to flow out of any surface area or channel to which they are applied. Further, there are no known methods to easily apply adhesives and grit to selective areas of mats.
There is a need for an improved mat which would have one or more of the following features. It could be manufactured from hard rubber for durability, yet feel compressive and resilient when stepped upon. When placed upon a grating it would not sink into or embed within the grating. It would have drain openings which are positioned within vertical surfaces on top of the mat. It would have areas of selectively placed grit bonded onto its top surface. A substantial portion of the selectively placed grit would be below the mat surface. The selectively placed grit would also have support from underneath to inhibit flexure causing the grit to become unbonded. Additionally, a cost-effective method for applying selectively placed grit to the top of the mat is needed. The tendency of a liquid adhesive to flow away from the area where it is initially placed needs to be minimized.
Because of the difficulty of cost effectively molding drain holes into vertical wall surfaces on top of a mat, there is also a need for a cost-effective process for creating drain holes within a vertical wall surface on top of a mat.